Tibet quake bigger than first thought

New Delhi, Aug.30 (ANI): A 10-km-long crack belt running south to north was found on Thursday in Zhongba county of the Tibet Autonomous Region, which elevated the scale of the earthquake that struck the area on Monday to magnitude 8, a local official said. Xinhua quoted Zhu Quan, head of the Tibet earthquake bureau, as saying that the crack was 30 km to the west of the town of Longgeer and 5,200 m above sea level, and there were also sand blast and water gushing along it. “All these take the magnitude up to 8 from 6.8 reported on Monday,” Zhu told the China News Service. The tremor will have no effect on the Qinghai-Tibet railway, which is several hundred kilometers from the quake zone, he added. Although the earthquake had, as of Wednesday, affected 7,600 people and damaged 622 houses and 54 schools, conditions in the area were stable, he said. (ANI)